Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Drawing of the Swan nebula M17

A Mintron camera was placed at the prime focus of a 5" Newtonian. The Mintron monitor screen was used as an electronic eyepiece for making the sketch. The sketch was photographed and then made negative:

The Sun in white light

A Pentax K-x DSLR was placed at the prime focus of an f/4.8 Newtonian fitted with a full aperture solar filter. Live-view was used to aid focussing and then 15 exposures were made using an infra-red remote control. The RAW files were stacked in Registax 5 :AR1260 and 1261 were visible as well as another undesignated sunspot group near the centre of the disk. Click on an image to get a larger view:Click on the image to see a 50% full-size disk.

The area containing AR1260 and 1261 was cropped out of the larger image:These images are published on Spaceweather.com

A DMK21AS camera fitted with a UV/IR cut filter and a green, continuum filter was placed at the prime focus of the scope:More detail was revealed

A x 2.5 Barlow was used to image the two sunspot groups separately:AR1260

The Sun and the Veil Nebula

A DMK21AS camera with a 2.5 x Barlow was attached to a 5" Maksutov fitted with a Photo grade Baader solar filter. AR1260 was imaged in green continuum light. Images were colourised to represent the wavelengths used:

The same region was imaged in Ca K-line light with a CaK PST:

The whole solar disk was imaged in sections in H-alpha light with a H-alpha PST and a mosaic of the disk was made. Click on an image to get a larger view.

Later, the Veil nebula was imaged with an f/4.8 Newtonian and a Pentax K-x DSLR fitted with a light pollution filter. 44 minutes of 30s exposures were used to produce this image in Deep Sky Stacker. Dark frames and Flat fields were used:

Combining image data from two night's imaging produced an image based on 77 minutes total exposure:Note the satellite track across the top of the image.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Deep Sky with a Pentax K-x and a 10" Newtonian

A Pentax K-x DSLR fitted with a light pollution was placed at the prime focus of an f/4.8, 10" Newtonian. The camera was set to ISO 12800 and 30s exposures were captured of deep sky objects . The RAW files were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker:Eastern Veil nebula (Caldwell 33)